Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Sotirios Kyrgiakos Is A Transfer Target For Stoke City

Tony Pulis will renew his interest in Liverpool defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos once the transfer window reopens this summer reports The People.

The Potters boss tried to bring the Greece international to the Britannia stadium in the January window in a bid to strengthen his defensive line, only for the move to break down in the final hour.

Kyrgiakos was a £2million signing from AEK Athens in August 2009, and despite playing well when called upon, he has struggled to cement his place in the Liverpool starting line-up with fierce competition for places.

Since the arrival of Kop legend Kenny Dalglish, the 31-year-old centre half has rarely featured for the Reds and therefore would consider a move away from Anfield but is keen to remain in the Barclays Premier League.

Liverpool owners are keen to offer King Kenny the manager’s job on a full-time basis, and confirmation of that would all but end Kyrgiakos’ fledgling career at Anfield as Dalglish will likely move for a central defender of his own choosing.

New England Sports Ventures (NESV) have identified the development of young players at their Academy as a priority for transfers moving forward, and Liverpool director of football strategy Damien Comolli has been tasked with bringing the cream of young European talent to Merseyside.

With this in mind, Kyrgiakos’ opportunities look to be increasingly limited at Liverpool, but Pulis has seen enough to convince him he would fit into the Stoke City set-up as a ready made replacement for Abdoulaye Faye - who could still complete a switch to Celtic at the end of the season.

Faye, 32 had also agreed a deadline day deal that would have seen him swap the Britannia stadium for Celtic Park, but when Stoke officials realized they had run out of time to bring in Kyrgiakos the plug was pulled on both deals.

No comments: